Monday

Monday December 10, 12:47 pm

Phones have been down all day. Here at the W's the electricity is still on; no one knows why. There is no power at Jeff and Naomi's up the road, or at Gran K and Don's. Wondering if they woke up very cold, we pray a little harder for March, and huddle around fireplaces and gaze and think about what we love. To be warm is what we need. The day is frozen soundless and everyone must be close and comforted together to survive, in our own Ark with flickering flames and some laughter. Winter makes us lonely, at the same time it forces us together. We are warm and cold.

4:17 pm
The power went out shortly after 1. Pretty lamps and candles lit all over the house. Mum is in Efficiency Mode, we must do this, we must do it now, we must seize Fate by the throat, or was that Beethoven. Happy birthday, Beethoven.

8:05 pm
Dad has made an entry, we all have eaten by oil-lamplight, and he has dragged off the boys and they are at work on the finicky Generator. The rest of us all have had the best time singing at the Piano and playing Chinese Checkers in the flickering Darkness, but now half are getting grumpy and insist on Showers, and TV, and say they can't even tell which color Checker is theirs without the stupid lights on when will they get the stupid lights on and I REALLY NEED A SHOWER. It seems rusticity also loses its charm.